I will never forget the day my wife and I landed at Orlando airport. We had tried, (unsuccessfully) to find out if the ban on importing fruit into Florida applied to dry fruit too. The air hostess had promised to find out, but had never come back to us whilst a very short tempered lady on the immigration desk had merely snapped: “Don’t worry, the Beagle will get you.” What did that mean we wondered as we stumbled sleepily into the baggage hall?

We didn’t have long to wait. First there was the howl. This was followed by the yapping. And then, suddenly, the dog appeared, sniffing around our feet. Prison, or at least a huge fine seemed to beckon. And ignorance I’m told is no defence. You can imagine our relief then when the dog (the infamous Beagle of course) turned and pushed its nose into a bag belonging to the woman standing next to us. And the reason? An apple core she had forgotten to throw away! I never did discover what happened to that hapless traveller, but I have to admit the incident has become an enduring reminder of the power of smell.

Smells can affect us, as well as dogs. They can stir memories and transport us back to places and people we may have long forgotten. The moment I catch the whiff of a curry for example I find myself standing at my school friend’s door. His mother, as you may guess, came from Calcutta. “Oh happy day.”

But have you ever wondered if God has a sense of small too? The apostle Paul clearly thought He has as we can see from a letter he wrote to some of friends in Philippi. Paul was in prison and despite the fact that they were not that well off, his friends wanted to ensure to he had enough to keep going. And so they sent him a gift. He was profoundly grateful for this and wrote to tell them so.

But he wanted to do more than that. He wanted them to know that that their generosity had brought a smile to God’s face as well. As far as God was concerned, he wrote, their gifts were a ‘sweet smelling sacrifice’ and they had brought Him a great deal of pleasure. I suppose if he was writing today, Paul would have said that God found their generosity as pleasing as a very expensive perfume or a very pleasant after shave.

I’ve been thinking about generosity a lot lately, not least because my good friend Ifor Williams has just published his semi-autobiographical book Open Hands Open Heart. If you read it, you will quickly see that Ifor has learned that we can’t out give God. But, having said that, it’s obvious that this has not come without its struggles.

There was the day for example when he went off to preach only to realise that he had left his box of Smarties behind. Ifor had been hoping to give away the Smarties to illustrate the fact that God is unbelievably generous. And so he began to look for a replacement. But try as he may, he realised that all he had to give away was the fountain pen he had been given some time before. And he had no intention of parting with that. In the end though, he very reluctantly came to the conclusion that he had no option, but to do just that. And so he did.

But then to his complete astonishment he received a letter from the church secretary a few days later thanking him for his kindness and asking him to accept a brand new pen. It was the same colour and the same model, but best of all, it was also brand new!

And this was just one of the many times that Ifor (and I) have discovered that God is not just generous He loves cheerful givers too, not least because He likes the smell they generate.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]